The Buick Y-Job is a 2-door convertible coupe from Buick. Under the bonnet: 5.2-liter (320 ci) Buick straight-8. Harley Earl drew it.
How it came about
The Buick Y-Job was a convertible car developed by American manufacturer Buick in 1938. It was the auto industry's first concept car, a model intended to show new technology or designs but not be mass-produced for sale to consumers. Designed by Harley Earl, the car had power-operated hidden headlamps, a "gunsight" hood ornament, electric windows, wraparound bumpers, flush door handles, and prefigured styling cues used by Buick until the 1950s and the vertical waterfall grille design still used by Buick today. It used a Buick Super chassis, indicated by the word "Super" located above the rear license plate. The car was driven for a number of years by Harley Earl, until he replaced it with a 1951 model car. Sometime after that, the car was restored at the Henry Ford Museum, until 1993 when it was returned to the GM Design Center. The "Y" in the name has two explanations:
All experimental cars were called "X", so Earl simply went to the next letter in the alphabet. The "Y" designation was selected by Earl because it was used extensively in the aviation industry denoting the most advanced prototypes. In 2001, Buick recreated the Y-Job with modern advancements called the Buick Blackhawk drawing extensively from the Y-Job.
The hardware
Power comes from 5.2-liter (320 ci) Buick straight-8. The wheelbase is 126 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its Buick stablemates include the Buick First Call and the Buick Funeral Car.